Principal Communication

This week at Lawton, 2nd and 3rd grade students read scary stories in the library, 4th and 5th graders practiced their composition skills in music, and Kindergarten and 1st graders jumped rope in PE. The time students spend learning from specialists is key to our educational programming. Ask your students what they did in music, PE, or library this week to learn more. Morning Drop Off With bus service suspended and families trying to negotiate safe and timely drop off for 300+ students in a 15-minute window, it is more important than ever that we work together to make morning traffic flow smoothly. Please arrive early and stay alert (phones away please). The most frantic time for drop

Lawton students and staff participated in the Great American ShakeOut Drill on Thursday. Everyone did a great job when asked to drop, cover, and hold. Ask your student to show you how – and you can practice at home! Counselor Corner Every six weeks, our counselor Erica Barry rotates through all Lawton classrooms to do a social emotional learning lesson. Read below to learn more about lessons by grade level for the latest cycle: K: Mood Meter – We learned about the Mood Meter and all the different big emotions we can feel. We played “guess the feeling” based on facial cues and learned strategies for how to guess what people are feeling even when they have masks

One of the joys of coming back to school is in person music and PE. Ms. Cooper and Mr. Peters are curating engaging and safe learning experiences that maximize learning new skills while adhering to our health and safety protocols. Ask your student about what they learned this week! Family Night October 19th – Focus on Positive Communication Parent: How was your day? Student: Fine. Sound familiar? Want more? Join Erica Barry, school counselor, on Tuesday, October 19th at 7pm for a family night focused on positive communication. Ms. Barry will share five tips for effective conversations with your student(s). The PTA will also do a brief overview of how they support Lawton and what you can do

We hope your family is having a safe and joyful Friday. While your students are home, Lawton staff are busy planning for strong and engaging math instruction, attending assessment trainings, collaborating as teaching teams, and working on an all-school student engagement project. Students spend approximately 1,000 hours at school each year. We want to make sure those hours are filled with Lawton students feeling seen, known, and loved. Research shows that strong teacher-student relationships are associated with short- and long-term improvements in academic engagement, attendance, grades, positive behavior, and graduation rates. Lead by our PBIS Committee, Lawton staff will be taking time to look at photos of each and every student in our school to see how many

Lawton Dolphins have had a great week! We emphasize showing the WAVE at school and our students are doing just that: Welcome everyone Act responsibly Value learning Encourage each other On Monday, we had our second flood of the rainy season downstairs. District staff came quickly to assist in clean up and attempt to stop it from happening in the future. Students and teachers changed their end of day routines to avoid the flooded areas. We’re becoming masters of flexibility! On Tuesday, the Seattle Fire Department came to observe our whole school fire drill. The drill went quickly and smoothly. Fire Captain Allen spoke to the students about how impressed he was with them. Today, our tie-dye spirit

Thank you for attending our Curriculum Connections meetings this week with teachers. Students are continuing to engage in learning activities that connect community building and social emotional learning with academics. Examples of this include "I come from" poems in 4th grade and other writing prompts like: who am I, I can tame the beast by, and I can be a good friend by. Ask your student about the writing they did this week. ATTENDANCE We really appreciate your efforts to get students to school on time! Help us on track by: Getting students to campus by 7:45 so that they are ready to enter the building when the bell rings at 7:50 and in class and ready to

This week, students began visiting the library with our librarian, Ms. Gallegos. The re-opening of our library to students is exciting for all of us. Ms. Gallegos did a great job keeping books in student hands during remote and hybrid learning last year but it’s so much more fun for them to browse the shelves themselves to discover something new.   Each fall, we make time for families to meet your student’s teacher and hear about the upcoming year. Our teachers are looking forward to hosting virtual Curriculum Connections meetings on September 21st. Please join us to hear about the exciting learning planned for your student and what our new “normal” looks like in the classroom.  Each teacher

Happy Friday Lawton Dolphins! This week we had a chance to welcome our kindergarten students to campus this week. Students and teachers are thoughtfully creating class charters, continuing community building, and learning all within our new normal. HEALTH AND SAFETY INFORMATION The health and safety of our entire community is important. We’ve had confirmed COVID cases in three classrooms since the start of school. It takes all of us working together to keep learning safe and joyful. The rest of this newsletter is dedicated to safety reminders, sharing information about how COVID is handled at school, and identifying things you can do to help keep students safe outside of school hours. Consistent with Department of Health guidelines for

Thank you for a wonderful first week of school! We are looking forward to welcoming our kindergarten students to campus on September 9th. First Day Packets Your 1st – 5th grade student should have brought home an envelope full of start of school forms and information. Kindergarten families will receive their packets soon. Please return all forms as soon as possible. Extra Masks Please send your child with a few clean masks each day. We’re finding that PE and multiple recesses can leave masks soiled and uncomfortable. Having extras will keep your child safe and comfortable throughout the school day. We have disposable masks available when needed. End of Day Plans Please make sure your student knows their

Happy Friday! Lawton teachers and staff are hard at work preparing for the year ahead. We are looking forward to seeing your students next week! You should have received your student’s teacher assignment via email today. If you didn’t, please email Kristina Cerise. Your teacher assignment email includes lots of important information about school supplies, arrival and dismissal procedures, health protocols, and more. We’re keeping this newsletter short so that you can focus on reading the teacher letter closely. Students with Medications Please remember that if your student has life-saving medications (e.g., epi pens or inhalers) or needs medication of any kind at school (even over-the-counter medication), we need both the medication and this form completed by your health